Nore­lease date has­been an­nounced­butIam al re ady sali­vat­ing with an­tic­i­pa­tion. Th e story of Lenu and Lina con­sum ed m e en­tirely as I raced to th e fi­nal book in th e quarte t, The Story of the Lost Child, an d I can ’t wait to se e th is tale of fe m ale frie n dsh ip re told in a vis­ual m e dium .

O f course , th is an tic­i­pa­tion is tin ge d with a dash of fear. It is th e sam e fear th at ev­ery book-lover ex­pe­ri­ences

And some­times it’s even bet­ter when it is adapted for TV or a movie

wh e n a we ll-love d book is turn e d in to a m ovie or a T V se rie s. I fe lt th at fe ar wh e n th e first se ason of Game of Thrones was re­leased, not sure h ow th at tale of kings and knigh ts, love an d lust, pride an d pas­sion , would work on th e T V scre e n .

But th e one auth or wh ose works I long to see on tele­vi­sion is Ge orge tte He ye r (just on e of h e r book s, The Re­luc­tant Widow, h as be e n m ade in to a film –an­dapret­ty­badoneat th at!). Th e pro­lific auth or of R egency rom an­ces h as given us­such am az­ingchar­ac­ter­sas The Grand So­phy, Ara­bella, Fred­er­ica, Vene­tia, and it would be an ab­so­lute tre at to se e th e m com e alive on the TV scre e n . But for som e re ason , Bri­tish T V com pan ie s are too busy film in g Pride and Prej­u­dice again and again an d again to pay an y atte n tion to th e pos­si­bil­i­tie s in h e re n t in th e se He ye r h e roin e s.

I am a tad ner­vous about how Elena Fer­rante’s Neapoli­tan quar­tet (to be adapted into a TV se­ries) and Jo Baker’s novel, Long­bourn, (to be made into a movie) will sur­vive the tran­si­tion; the one au­thor whose works I long to see on tele­vi­sion is Ge­or­gette Heyer

FIN­GERS CROSSED

One hopes a new film re­leas­ing next year based on a book ac­quired by Ran­dom House Stu­dio and Fo­cus Fea­tures doesn’t go down the Down­ton Abbey (be­low) route